Rose Petals and Moss Mounds
by Lindous
Summary: "I'll tell the story," Garnet said. "And I'll make sure that it isn't too long. But I promise, I won't skip any of the important parts. Steven, did you know that your mother was once a human?"
1. Prologue

**Prologue: Sneezing and Stories**

Steven let out a loud sneeze which echoed across the room. From downstairs, Pearl gave Steven a sidelong glance of moderate concern to where he sat up on his bed. Steven rubbed his nose dismissively before he simply flopped back onto the bed and moaned.

"That's what you get for going out during a thunderstorm." Garnet's voice broke the silence that had settled across the room. From where she sat on the couch beside where Amethyst lay, she glanced over at Pearl, eyebrows raised.

"I still don't understand humans' fascination with playing in the rain," Pearl began, crossing one arm so that her elbow rested in her hand, and her other hand on her chin as she thought. "I mean, they know that they are risking getting sick..."

"'Cause it's fun," Amethyst muttered, vaguely glancing up from where she was sprawled across the couch. "Loosen up, Pearl. It's not like we're gonna die or anything." Amethyst paused, and began to cough harshly. "Besides," she said after a long pause, "We're finally getting over it."

Pearl raised an eyebrow. "That cough means that you're getting over it?"

"It was way worse yesterday."

Steven audibly moaned again, but this time a bit softer.

"Steven?" Pearl called up. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"No thanks," Steven called back down.

A small smile began to cross Garnet's face. "I have an idea. Steven, do you want to hear a story?"

This perked Steven's interest. Despite a congestive headache, Steven bolted upright from where he lay on bed, and then leaned over the edge to glance at the lower floor, locking eyes with Garnet.

"What kind of story?" he asked.

"Garnet, that's a wonderful idea!" Pearl exclaimed, clasping her hands together and practically twirling. "We could tell him about the time we found the battlefield, or the time we..."

Garnet raised a single hand. Amethyst sat, captivated by Garnet's stoic expression, and watched as the gem said in all seriousness, "I was thinking that we should tell him more about his mother."

Pearl's eyes widened slightly, and she nodded, but continued to smile.

Amethyst grinned, and coughed. "What story hasn't he heard already?" she managed to choke out.

Pearl walked over to Amethyst, slowly rubbing the gem's back until she could breath easily again. Amethyst nodded her thanks, and turned her attention back to Garnet.

"Well, I was thinking that we should start from the beginning..." Pearl said, sounding quite precise, and eager for detail. "You see, Steven..."

"Pearl! That's going to be way too much information! Just let me! Steven, you know how your mother came to your dad's concert?..." Amethyst began.

"Wait," Garnet commanded, and slowly walking toward the stairs before she ascended to the top floor of the house and sat at the edge of Steven's bed. Garnet gave one small, charming smile.

"I'll tell the story," she said, and both Amethyst and Pearl remained silent. Steven watched with an expression of awe. "And," Garnet continued. "It won't be too long. But I promise, I won't leave out any of the good parts. Steven, did you know that your mother was once human?"

* * *

**For those of you looking at this after I posted my last Steven Universe fic, I decided to go with a Rose-centric before I do Amethyst. I had such an inspiration for this one, that I felt as though I really couldn't work on an Amethyst story without getting this written out first. **

**Because I am busy with school (AP classes and all that) updates should be common enough, but sporatic. Not gonna be as quick as with my other multi-chapter stories simply because I'm on a seriously insane schedule. **

**=P this is only the prologue. I'll update the next chapter soon enough =) **


	2. Rosie and Steven

**Author's note: I realize that it might be good to clarify, that when Rose was a human, she had an older brother named Steven. That's where she got the name for her own son. **

**The girl at the end of the chapter also is not Pearl. I know that it's a bit vague =) but it will be explained.**

* * *

"Spider!" she screamed shrilly. She picked up the first thing in sight- an umbrella from the stand near the door- and rather than swing it at the offending arachnid, simply threw the umbrella in the generally direction of the spider before proceeding to scream as it crawled toward her.

"Rose? Are you okay?" a voice called. A man that only had to be about twenty years old walked into the room. He was tall, about six feet total, and very thin. His hair was thick and a dark brownish color, but his eyes were incredibly kind.

"Steven! It's in the corner!" Rose cried, refusing to look in the direction where she had thrown the umbrella.

Steven grinned, glancing down at the spider and then back at his sister.

"Rosie, it's okay. He's not going to hurt you." Steven placed one hand on the floor, allowing the spider to step onto his hand, before he opened the door to the house and gently tossed it outside.

Rose stared at Steven, eyes widening as she seemed both incredulous and disgusted.

"I don't know how you can stand that! Didn't it try to bite you?"

Steven shrugged in response, and smiled. "That's simply a risk I've gotta take if I was going to help it. Besides, Rose, mom always said that it was good to love everything, especially the little things."

Rose shook her head, clutching it in her hands. "That's never something I could do and you know it," she shot back teasingly when she finally looked up. "Besides, I'll always have you around to protect me."

Steven shook his head. "There's going to be a time when you can't say that. You need to get married, before anything." She let out a loud groan upon hearing this.

Rose was about sixteen years old. She was a pretty thing, with thick blonde curls and fair skin.

She shook her head at Steven.

"I don't really like any of the people that come by here," Rose said, dismissively shaking her head. Her hands played with the long skirt of the frock she wore. "I mean, really, all lot of them are snobby."

"You're snobby," Steven teased.

"You're snobbier," Rose shot back.

They both laughed, but froze when they heard someone begin to ring the warning bell from outside.

There was a long pause, and Steven finally spoke.

"Get into the wardrobe. Go...go and hide. Quickly!"

Rose began to scurry down the hall, lifting the edge of her skirt off of the ground, before she turned back and looked at Steven.

"Go!" he yelled this time, ushering for her to keep going. Rose remained frozen where she stood, hearing footsteps ascend the house next door. Steven shook his head, hurrying forward before he picked Rose up off of the ground, and began to run with her down the hall. He walked into his own bedroom, opened his wardrobe, and gently shoved her inside.

"Steven, I-"

"There's no time. Keep quiet, and I'll handle this."

The wardrobe shut and Rose couldn't see herself in the blackness, but listened as her brother's footsteps echoed back down the hall. She could have sworn that she heard a scream next door; someone female.

Steven's heart raced as he walked back down the hall, and heard a stiff but firm knock on the front door where he and Rose stood only moments before. He carefully turned the knob, only to have the door impatiently thrown open at him as soon as he began to open it. Darkness from the outside was only slightly cut by the candle light from within the house, and in his doorway, Steven gazed at a group of young male soldiers.

"We came for the girl," the soldier at the front of the pack said. "She's at an age where she can be enlisted...?"

Steven confidently and seriously shook his head 'no.' None of the young men looked surprised. The one who spoke simply looked exasperated at this.

"Look, can we just skip this part?..." the soldier began, trying to shove his way through the door, but was cut short when Steven gave the solder a swift punch into the stomach.

Steven held his ground, waiting until now to look angry. "I won't allow you to violate my home like you did all the others," he said finally.

The soldiers looked down with meek curiosity at their now slightly-crumpled leader as he stood upright, and shook his head.

"You know what happens next."

Steven's eyes widened slightly, be he refused to withdraw. "Perhaps you can enlighten me."

From behind their cloaks, each soldier drew a small knife. Before he really had time to react, Steven realized that he was being stabbed, and slowly dropped to the ground just outside his doorway. He stared in shock as red began to stain the ground.

Each soldier was now without his knife, and each soldier was careful not to step over Steven as they walked into the house and began to look for Rose.

* * *

Only a few feet away, watching all of this happen, a little girl stood in a tree, watching the events and shaking her head. She was dressed in a long, white dress, and looked well-bathed. A small, pink gemstone was placed carefully on the bridge of her nose.

"What should I do to help this?" she asked out loud, and began to wait for a reply as she watched the soldiers search the house. It was as if nobody in sight had heard her.

* * *

**I'm not gonna lie, this was difficult to right. I had it in concept, already, but I kept wondering if it was good enough.**

**Either way, I like how Rose's character is already developing. I was thinking that this took place in the early Victorian era, since she has got to be well over a century old  
**


	3. Ruby's Choice

Rose quickly and quietly opened the door of the wardrobe as she heard footsteps come down the hall. Frantically, her gaze searched the room before it rested on a single window on the far wall. Rose ran over and struggled to open it, the window itself making a lot of noise when its latches finally broke.

As Rose swung one foot outside the window, the door to the room she was in swung open. In the doorway stood one of the soldiers, a small grin crossing his face as he watched Rose trying to get away.

"This one is awfully cute!" he called out to the others, looking away from the girl for a moment.

"You found her?" Another soldier called back.

"Yeah, and she's already stuck." The soldier turned back around to notice that the window was wide open, but that the young woman was gone.

* * *

Rose hiked the front of her skirt up to her knees as she sprinted around the far end of the house, near the front door. As she passed by, she stopped cold when she saw Steven lying face down on the ground.

"Steven," she murmured quietly, tears coming to her eyes. The man on the ground groaned quietly, and Rose bent down to turn him over.

Steven rested in Rose's arms for a moment, shaking his head and muttering inaudibly. He locked eyes with Rose for a moment, speaking again, but she still couldn't hear him.

Upon hearing the soldiers' voices coming back towards the door, Rose lightly rested Steven back on the ground, and began running as fast and as far away as she could.

* * *

With a shrug, the little girl in white leaped gracefully out her tree and walked past where Rose's dead brother lay, shaking her head.

"What a waste."

The girl leaned over, gently turning Steven so that he was lying on his back, and shut his eyes.

As the soldiers that pursued Rose came back around to the door, they paid no notice to the girl as they ran straight past her, a few of them almost bumping into her.

* * *

Rose had collapsed into a sobbing heap at the end of the road, finally giving into exhaustion as the adrenaline of the moment wore off. The soldier's voices came closer to her, and Rose scrambled toward the bushes to hide before she felt the sensation of falling.

Barely managing to keep her eyes open, Rose realized that she had been tumbling down a rather grassy hillside. There was a sharp sting in her arm as she tumbled over a rock, and she constantly felt the sting of nettles and thorns catching and remaining punctured in her skin. As she picked up speed, her screams were cut forward in an effort to keep breathing.

Abruptly, Rose felt her body crash into the ground, and roll toward the a small clearing right at the bottom of the hill. She felt herself fall again, this time straight downward, as the floor of clearing caved in only a few feet downward into a small cavern. Rose felt a sharp pain shoot up her back, and let out a final shriek of agony.

The soldiers stood at the top of the hill, and began laughing. They went no farther, but simply turned and began to amble back toward the town, figuring the girl for dead.

The sun was rising, just barely. That was the last thing that Rose remembered before blacking out.

* * *

The girl in white strode over to Rose slowly, leaning over and gently aligning Rose so that she lay flat on her back.

"This isn't good," the girl kept saying to herself. "Not another one today...I'm failing at this..." The girl had noticed that Rose's spine had been fractured in several places, and that the young woman was severely injured.

The gemstone on the bridge of the girl's nose began to glow, a light pinkish color, and Rose's eyes slowly blinked open.

"Where am I?" Rose slurred, her gaze drifting around the room.

The girl in white looked down in wonderment at the fact that Rose was awake. "_Still alive," _the girl thought, and a small smile began to cross her face. "_It's not too late..."_

"You fell in here while you were being chased," she said. "I saw you when your brother was dying. I'm Ruby, by the way."

"Ruby?" Rose slurred. She tried to move one of her legs, but found that the muscles wouldn't respond. Rose began to panic, and continually tried to thrash and smack the ground and just _move, _but found that she could not.

"What's happening?" Rose asked, beginning to hyperventilate. "What are you doing?" Ruby shook her head and stroked Rose's hair.

"It's all going to be fine," Ruby said. The gem on her face began to glow more brightly. Rose tried to move again, and slowly came to the realization that she had been paralyzed in her fall.

"I can't move...the soldiers..." Rose slurred. The gemstone became brighter. Rose wished for a moment that she could have shielded her eyes from the intense light. "What is that?"

"A gem," Ruby said. "_She's dying...This is the only way. I'm sorry, Diamond. I wish that I could have been better," _the girl thought. "You're going to feel as good as new in just a few moments, just stay with me."

Rose tilted her head back. "You're ten years old," she said quietly. "You look about ten." It was evident that she was in deep shock.

The girl shook her head again. "I only look ten," she said finally. "This is the form I prefer." The girl's attention snapped back to Rose's injuries, and she began to look distraught.

"_The only way...Is this really what it means to protect humanity?"_

The gem erupted with a bright flash of light, and Rose's vision cleared, but she noticed that the girl was gone.

"Hello?"

Rose felt...different...somehow. It was easier to see the inside of the cavern, but what really struck Rose was the fact that she could move again. She slowly rose to her feet, looking around the small cave for a moment. Spots where water had pooled around the cave after leaking through the surface above were all around her. Rose neared one of the pools, scrutinizing her appearance in the water's reflection, before jumping back at the realization that both her hair and skin were now a light shade of pink.


	4. Rose Quartz

**Hey guys, sorry chapters are being posted more slowly than normal. I swear anyone who takes calculus must be masochistic.**

**Anyway, I'm forewarning you all now that after the next chapter, the time skips are going to start.**

* * *

Rose felt the back of her head, her hands pressing into her scalp. Her curly hair had gotten much thicker, and felt much heavier. Holding her hands out in front of her, she stared at her pink skin before letting out a small whimper.

Burying her face in her hands, Rose fell to her knees and sobbed.

When she finally chose to look up and stare back at her reflection in the pool of water, Rose felt a new rush of horror and confusion.

"_What is this?" _she thought. She felt a sharp pain in her stomach, and doubled over onto the cavern floor. Clutching her stomach and groaning, Rose finally opened her eyes wide enough to notice for the first time that the cavern walls were embedded with gemstones.

The pain disappeared, and Rose got on her feet, curiosity taking over. She walked up to the wall wall closest to her- the wall on the other side of the pool of water- and ran her hand along a sapphire embedded in the wall, and noticed a ruby right beside it.

It moved.

The small ruby that had been thoroughly embedded into the stone wall began to wiggle and shift, as if someone on the other side of the wall were pushing it outward. In another moment, the ruby fell to the floor with a small _'chink,' _and in its place were hints of a smaller, pink stone.

Rose recoiled from what she saw, stepping back and shaking her head. She thought back to the ruby embedded in the girl's face, and felt a sharp pain in her stomach once again. Painfully sitting down, Rose lifted the front of her dress just enough to expose her stomach, and saw a pink gemstone embedded in the flesh. It glowed.

* * *

"Whoa..." Steven said, staring at Garnet's calm face. "So my mom lived in a village?"

"That's your take-away?" Pearl muttered, raising her eyebrows. Amethyst laughed throatily, but stopped when she fell into a heavy coughing fit. Pearl looked over at the doubled-over gem in slight panic, disappearing into the kitchen for a moment, and then reappearing with a glass of water.

Accepting the glass from Pearl, Amethyst managed a quick "Thanks" before drinking.

Garnet smiled as she watched all of this, and then turned back to Steven with her usual stoic expression.

"Do you need anything?"

Steven shook his head lightly. "I liked watching Amethyst laugh," he said with a smile.

"Do you want me to continue?"

"Yes," Steven said, giving Garnet a serious nod.

* * *

"Find her, now. She could be in danger..."

"Diamond, it's not that easy...it could be hostile...you know how humans are..."

"And when was the last time a human could kill one of us?"

"Alright...we'll go..."

* * *

Rose had been too weak to leave the cavern for the rest of the day. When she had recovered herself enough to truly consider her situation, she realized that her entrance to the cavern, which hung too far above her head, had actually left her stranded.

Noticed by her at one point was a large, shiny, silicon pad that remained in the center of the room, but for some reason had nothing on it, as though it were not truly meant to be a display platform.

Therefore, Rose was genuinely surprised when the pad suddenly erupted with light. And on top of the pad then stood two men, one with very light blue hair and white skin, standing at only five feet tall, and the other with dark golden hair and light yellow skin, standing at about six feet tall.

They looked at each other once, and then slowly stepped off of the warp pad, hands cautiously out to their sides.

The one with yellow hair was the first one to speak.

"Friend or Foe?"

Rose quickly nodded 'friend' with wide eyes.

The man with gold hair gave a friendly, yet weary smile.

"I'm Topaz," he said, lowering his hands to his sides. The blue gem did the same, and stoutly walked over to where Rose was standing.

"Sapphire," he said gruffly, thrusting his hand out and watching as Rose tentatively shook it.

"Rose," she said. She looked over to watch Topaz grin. "What?"

"You're a gem," he said smugly. "Rose what? Were you born yesterday?"

"No," Rose said defensively. "I just don't understand your question!"

Topaz froze, looking a bit confused. "Wait, you mean to tell me that Ruby disappeared because...whoa..."

Rose realized that suddenly Topaz was right beside her, looking her up and down.

"You really weren't just born yesterday...You used to be human!"

Sapphire recoiled upon hearing Topaz say these words, yanking his hand away.

"Ruby disappeared when she found me injured," Rose said defensively, offering the only information she truly knew.

Topaz nodded knowingly. "Doesn't sound quite like she was acting in sanely," he reasoned. "She's been like that lately. She was also not authorized to go on any mission alone, so me and Sapphire were sent out to find her." He looked Rose up and down one more time, before leaning forward and yanking the edge of her dress up to her belly.

"A rose quartz! We're coming back with a Rose Quartz!" he cheered. Rose smacked him away and smoothed her dress downward.

"Watch it," she snarled, and then glanced down at her now-covered stomach. "And what do you mean Rose Quartz?"

"You're a gem now, so get used to it," Topaz said with a grin. Sapphire nodded. Rose simply looked irritated.

"And here I thought it was a piece of jewelry," she muttered darkly. "So now what?"

"Oh, Diamond's not going to like this," Sapphire murmured, crossing his arms. "Let's warp."


	5. Diamonds and Garnets

"Diamond was not a patient gem..." Garnet said quietly. "I met her once. She had been given the directive to serve people, but turned away from that directive when humans didn't pay for protection. And when she strayed from her purpose, her motives became more corrupt."

Steven nodded, his eyes fixed on Garnet as she told the story. He broke into a coughing fit suddenly, falling backwards onto his bed's headboard.

Garnet gave Steven a stoic look that 'almost' masked her concern.

"Steven, we can take a break if you're not feeling well..."

"No!" Steven said, looking down and sticking his hands outward. "I mean, I really want to keep going. Please Garnet? I'm well enough!"

Garnet smiled. "You almost remind me too much of your mother," she said calmly. "So, anyway..."

* * *

The first thing Rose Quartz felt when she stepped off of the warp pad and into the interior walls of the gem stronghold was apprehension. Something just wasn't right about this place. Sapphire instantly eased up, seeming at home. Topaz did the same, wearing his playful and mischievous grin.

The walls and floor were gray, not like a human office, but more like the color had been simply drained from them. Several streams ran through the floor, weapons lined the walls, and it didn't take Rose very long to realize that this building was very old. Remarkably, it even had gray paintings on the walls, almost like hieroglyphics, depicting various gem battles.

Rose was standing in a temple.

A sharp wrap of footsteps, made Rose jump as she turned around to face a gem that was much taller than she was. A gem with almost-sickly light gray skin, and red eyes. What really struck Rose was the gem's hair; it didn't look human (but with various different colors) like the rest of the gems, but was like a crystal in appearance, solid and lifeless. When the light hit it just right, it sent out an array of colors. The only humanish aspect about it was the fact that it still acted like human hair, having grown out (at least for a time) until it reached her shoulders.

Really, it just seemed as though someone had touched this gem and turned it to evil, and her hair to crystal.

On the gem's cheek bones were two small gems, two heavily carved diamonds.

Diamond's lips pealed back into a smile, and Rose noticed small white gemstones embedded into her teeth.

"Welcome," Diamond said. She had the normal voice of a human woman. "I'm sure you must be quite confused."

Rose nodded, unable to bring herself to either smile cordially, or to shake the gem's outstretched hand.

Diamond withdrew her hand with a shake of her hand. "I assure you that quite a few new-comers find my appearance quite off-putting," she said. "But I promise that there is nothing to be afraid of. I have simply been a gem for far too long."

Rose stared. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, when you are a gem, this only gives you a couple hundred years of life, and that's all. Humans who hear about us think that we are immortal, but that is not the case."

Rose shook her head at Diamond. She had almost forgot that Topaz and Sapphire were there. "I wasn't exactly interested in this whole 'gem thing,'" she said bluntly. "I fell down a hill in an attempt not to be raped."

"Well then, I do suggest you make the best of your time here. Since you are responsible for the death of Ruby, I suggest that you join Sapphire's team."

Sapphire looked incredulous for a moment after Diamond spoke, pointing at Rose and giving Diamond a rather obscene gesture. Diamond raised her eyebrows.

Rose Quartz didn't speak. She noticed the other gems around the room looking up from their work places to stare at her, and so she turned and nodded to Diamond.

"Show me where to start," Rose sighed, looking defeated.

Diamond smiled sweetly, turning to Sapphire. "Go and check for missions."

* * *

Rose had been with Diamond's gem empire for about a century. The styles of people were changing, but Rose could have sworn that their attitudes were becoming worse.

Their job as gems were to track down gems gone rogue, those still trying to protect humans. Diamond was fantastic, leading them every step of the way. It was beneficial for the gems' reputation as humans, and other crystal gems, realized that Diamond's team was not a force to be reckoned with.

Rose Quartz could have sworn that she had never been happier. She had never felt so powerful.

"There! Another one! Get it, Topaz!"

Topaz laughed as he leaped down the cliff-side and drew his weapon out of his gem, a golden longsword, and began to beat back several water beasts that had been attacking a human camp.

Rose and Sapphire laughed. They had moved in just in time; no humans left, but what they came for was still intact.

"That's the child," Rose said, pointing out the baby that the the beasts were trying to attack. "That's the one that Diamond wanted us to track down. What is so special about it?"

"Apparently, it was stolen from the gems," Sapphire said. He began to leap down the cliff, Rose at his heels. When they reached the bottom, they watched as Topaz gently lifted the child out of the bassinet and began to cradle it softly, cooing.

The child had chocolate-brown skin, and small, dark-red gemstones on its hands.

"See? That human we saw trying to protect it from the beasts had white skin. There was no way that this was her child," Topaz said with a shrug. "Rose Quartz, you're a woman, take this child."

Rose barely had time to react as the small baby was thrust into her arms. "Wait," she said to Topaz. "But you were doing just fine!"

Topaz shrugged. "Not for much longer. She was a little scared of me. And now look, she's so calm looking at you..."

Rose sighed loudly. "I guess you're right. The sooner we get this child to Diamond, the better. What are these gemstones, anyway?"

"Garnets," Sapphire said. "This girl will be a powerful gem. Not many are born with two. Good thing she's no longer in the hands of those _humans_."


	6. Garnet and Rosie

"This is the child that you found?"

"Yes, Diamond. We found her in a human camp. She's only a baby."

"Clearly I have realized this, Sapphire," Diamond said coldly, her teeth twinkling. She looked down at the baby, now dubbed Garnet, with disgust. "She has three eyes. I guess you can train her. Give her to _Rose Quartz," _Diamond said. "She's had enough experience with humans, just as this child apparently has."

* * *

"That's it Garnet! Just like that!" Rose shouted, cheering on the young gem.

Garnet appeared to be five years old, but was really about 50. At this point, the gems on her hands had begun responding, and Rose had seen for the first time that Garnet's weapon was a solid pair of red gauntlets, fiercely polished and embedded with gemstones at the knuckles.

"Beautiful," Rose murmured, staring at Garnet as the young gem wielded her gauntlets for the first time.

"Hmmm..." Garnet said quietly. She sounded, as Rose noticed, just like a little English girl. "What are these?" Garnet asked, giving Rose a small, toothy smile as she held up her brass-covered hands.

Rose drew her pink shield out of her gem, and beckoned to Garnet. "Try hitting my shield. Let's see what you can do..."

Garnet ran over, beginning to strike Rose's shield with an amazing amount of force. Rose was out of breath just from keeping her stance. She grinned playfully, and held up one hand for Garnet to stop punching the shield.

Rose smiled. "Did you see how your gems just glowed, sweetie? That must be your weapon." Rose bent down beside Garnet, taking one of the young gem's armored hands into her own. "They're quite beautiful, and they suit you. Now imagine how you will be able to fight with these...You're so strong already..."

Garnet smiled again, nodding excitedly. "This means I'll finally get to join you and Topaz and Sapphire on missions!" she cheered, raising both arms into the air.

Rose felt as though her heart had stopped.

"Umm...yeah..." she said quietly.

Garnet's smile fell as she looked up at her mentor with concern.

"What's wrong, Rosie?"

Rose felt herself wince when she heard her old nickname. "Why are you calling me that?" she asked abrasively to Garnet, giving the young gem a glare.

Garnet took a small step backward, looking slightly frightened. "You were murmuring it in your sleep," she explained quietly. "And then you started talking about some people named Steven, and then Ruby."

Rose's face fell, and Garnet stared at her mentor in confusion as Rose began to look devastated.

"Rosie...Did I say something wrong?"

Tears welled up in Rose's eyes. "Nothing's wrong," she lied, crying. "Nothing's wrong. Go back to the stronghold."

Garnet did as she was told and began to walk home, looking back once at Rose to make sure that her mentor was following. Rose had dropped to her knees, her face in her hands.

* * *

She stared at the small mirror in her room, glancing it up and down as she shifted her face. Rose felt horror wash over her as she noticed small, pinkish-crystal spots were forming on her skin.

"_Being a gem only gives you a few centuries of life..."__  
_

The tips of her fingers were already red crystal.

"Rose Quartz! We have a mission!" Topaz called through the door. "Diamond is sending us to a village near the ocean. It's only just been formed awhile ago, and there are humans that need to get to know us. Are you coming?"

"Um...Just a sec!" Rose called over. She washed her face and ran over to the stone door of her room, putting on a fake smile. "Let's go!"

After a few moments, Rose and Topaz met Sapphire just outside of Diamond's temple, right by one of the resident warp pads for incoming gems. Garnet stood right beside the team leader, bouncing excitedly on her feet in anticipation of her first mission.

"Wait," Rose said, making no effort to mask her shock. She pointed one finger at Garnet. "What is she doing here?!"

Garnet stared at her mentor looking confused and sad. "I thought you wanted me here. Sapphire said that now that I can use my weapon, I might as well go on a mission."

Rose turned to Sapphire, showing small hints of anger. Sapphire shrugged and gave a small grin and glare mix.

"This was all recommended by Diamond," he explained easily, glancing down at the young gem.

"Well, hey, let's get out of here and warp, right?" Topaz asked, eager to change the subject. He was the first one to step onto the warp pad, and watched as the other three crystal gems followed. "Shall we?"

* * *

The village that the gems were visiting was small and peaceful. Rose knew that they shouldn't be doing this.

The skys were bright blue, and the sand was white. The ocean water, however, was an opaque-blue color, and the air tasted like salt. The men were out fishing just off the coast. That's when the gems had chosen to enter the town.

"So, is anyone supposed to be home?" Sapphire asked, looking around the straw houses. He smiled. "It's a really peaceful place. The people here must love it."

Topaz nodded. "Quite vulnerable though." He turned to the young gem. Garnet stared back, eyes round with wonder as she watched Topaz begin to speak.

"You see, Garnet...Being a crystal gem has always meant being able to protect people." Topaz drew a small stick off of the ground, and drew his longsword out of his gem. "Sometimes, this means protecting them from themselves." He struck the twig with his sword, and watched the stick catch fire. Topaz smiled, throwing the stick toward a straw house and watching it catch on fire.

"And if we can't protect them from themselves," Sapphire continued where Topaz left off, "Then there is just no hope for them. They are the most dangerous things in their lives."

Garnet's look of wonder fell into a look of horror. Rose could remember exactly what that looked like until the day she died.

The young gem backed away from the two older gems, leaning into Rose. "I'm scared," Garnet cried softly, burying her face into Rose's white dress.

"I know," Rose said, quietly, afraid to show her own fear.

Screams were erupting out of the village now, and the gems, who stood in the center of all the confusion, seemed to go unnoticed by the village's inhabitants. The men rushed back from their fishing trip, leaving their boats on the shore of the beach as they rushed over with sea water to put out the fires.

Sapphire turned and leaped onto the roof of the the tallest house while it began beneath him. He stared down at the frantic villagers, and slowly, the people stopped running around the village and stared back at him.

"We are the crystal gems," he announced. "And we will becoming back to this place. Remember us well; we don't leave our land unattended." He leaped back into the center of the crowd, lifting his longsword into a ready position. "And we don't let people live here for free."

Garnet was now sobbing, and Rose lifted her into her own arms. "It's okay," she kept singing gently. "It's going to be okay."

"I don't want to come on anymore missions..." Garnet sobbed. She cut off abruptly. "Why is your skin turning crystal?" she asked.

Rose shook her head, finally sighing and admitting the truth. "I have the same disease as Diamond," she said finally. "I won't be a gem for too long. It's going to kill me."

"It serves you right!" Garnet yelled hysterically. "Why did you let me come here? You lied to me!"

Rose felt tears come to her eyes. "Yes..." she said, whimpering. "I lied to you. I should have told you that you didn't want to be on these missions. And I shouldn't have helped hurt all these people, for all these years, and all the different towns and villages I have seen. I'm sorry..."

Garnet drew her gauntlets out of her gems while she sat in Rose's arms, and raised one hand. She flung her arm forward, and watched as she heard a satisfying 'crack' and felt herself being dropped from Rose's arms.

Rose stumbled back onto the beach, hurt, but not unable to stand. She looked back at Garnet as the young gem glared at her defiantly.

She had been happy for a time when she had been part of Diamond's gems.

But not really.


	7. Traitor

Topaz snapped his gaze away from the view he had of Sapphire terrorizing the villagers, and watched as Garnet began to try and fight Rose. He felt a small admiration for Rose Quartz when he saw how she gently drew her shield out of her gem and used it to deflect Garnet's blows, but never moving to attack the young gem.

Topaz crossed his arms and stood upright, unabashed.

"Sapphire! Look right over there!" he called, and watched, satisfied, as the light-skinned gem turned around and watched Garnet trying to attack Rose.

Sapphire's face contorted into an expression of fury as he left the villagers alone, almost forgetting of their existence altogether. He sneaked over to the young gem that was attacking Rose, taking the hilt of his sword, and angrily smacked Garnet's head one time, hearing a satisfying 'crack' when he hit the gem and watched her collapse, face first, into the sand.

Topaz walked over calmly, and with one arm, he lifted the unconscious Garnet over his shoulder while a despondent Rose watched everything that unfolded.

Rose trembled violently, remembering the expression that Garnet's face held when she had realized how the gems treated people, and the kind of work that they did on missions.

Topaz gave Rose a soft smile.

"It's okay, Rose. Sometimes mentor-ships don't work out. Some gems are just bound to be evil, in the end, and I guess that Garnet was just one of them," he said. He seemed perfectly relaxed. "Usually, we let Diamond deal with these cases herself. They only happen once every few centuries."

Rose didn't respond.

* * *

Diamond curled one finger into her palm, looking livid.

"There," she said, looking over at the young, now-conscious gem that Topaz carried. "That's the one?"

Sapphire, Topaz, and Rose had all reported back to Diamond immediately upon returning from the mission.

Sapphire nodded at Diamond. Garnet began to struggle again in Topaz's arm, but a simple cuff to the back of the head by Topaz silenced her. Her short, curly, black hair hung upside down with her, and an expression of anger remained on her face.

Diamond pursed her lips together.

"Drop her," Diamond commanded, and watched as Topaz emotionlessly let Garnet fall onto the floor. Diamond put her chin in her hand. "She's still weak," Diamond continued.

Sapphire nodded. "But it felt good to hit her after all the trouble she's caused us."

Diamond bent over where young Garnet was sprawled onto the floor, leaning into her face.

"I found you when you were a child," Diamond snarled. "I find out that you had been kidnapped from your real gem tribe, and I sent my gems out to retrieve you. I decided that you could live here and be trained here. And you repay me by attacking one of my gems?"

Rose looked calm, maybe a bit frazzled, but showed no hint of how vile she felt about all of this happening. Garnet was right, and they were all wrong. So why did it have to work out this way?

Diamond grinned, re-straightening her posture and turning toward Rose.

"My friend, I believe that your loyalty has come into question," Diamond said, a wicked smile coming over her face as a new idea emerged in her mind. "From the way I hear it, you tried to comfort this gem, who obviously did not agree with our actions, and treated her as though she was right, even after you were attacked."

Rose felt her eyes widen at this information.

"In this case, both of you are traitors," Diamond concluded, but her smile grew even more crooked. "And the penalty here for treachery is death. You know this, Rose Quartz, even if your young student does not."

Rose finally gathered the nerve to speak, her tone full of anger and retribution.

"Are you suggesting that we be killed? There's no way out of this for either of us?"

"Oh," Diamond said with a playful grin. "There is one way." Diamond glanced down at Garnet, mentally relishing the defiance that radiated off of her.

Diamond smiled, looking almost normal, as she drew her own weapon out of her gem. This had been the first time that Rose had seen Diamond's weapon: a white, perfectly-thin sword that Rose later realized could cut through solid titanium like as if it were warm butter.

"You can prove your loyalty to us," Diamond said, throwing her weapon to Rose. Rose caught it with one hand.

"But only on one condition," Diamond continued. She pointed over at Garnet. "Kill her."


	8. The Great Escape

"Whoa..." Steven said, staring at Garnet. "Do you mean...?

"Yes," Garnet said seriously, and nodded. "I was rather helpless in this circumstance. And then I was placed at Rose's mercy. You should know that no matter what, I grew to have the highest respect for her. I'm actually a bit amazed that she once ran with these people...but that was only some-what dealt with later."

"What do you mean 'some-what dealt with'?" Steven asked, leaning forward.

"Wait for that part of the story," Garnet commanded. Steven abruptly began coughing, and she looked mildly concerned for a moment. "Let's take a break," she said.

Steven nodded, wobbling off of his bed and standing up ungracefully beside Garnet as the bigger gem helped him down the stairs.

Garnet looked over at the couch that Amethyst had been sprawled out on, and smiled when she saw that Amethyst and Pearl were spread out over it, asleep.

"Stay quiet," Garnet said softly to Steven as they moved toward the kitchen. Quickly getting Steven a glass of water, Garnet was ready to help him back upstairs.

"Garnet," Steven moaned quietly, standing before his bed and coughing a moment later. "Will you help me in? Please?"

Garnet paused for a moment, and gently helped Steven into bed.

"We should probably give the story a break, if you're that tired...you need rest."

"No! Garnet...Please?" Steven asked pleadingly.

The bigger gem remained quiet for a long time, before finally letting out a relenting sigh.

"I can't say no to that face..." she reasoned softly. "So I was lying on the floor, watching..."

* * *

Rose remained frozen where she stood as Diamond held her thin white sword out to her.

"Well?" Diamond asked, smirking.

"_How can she expect me to make this choice?" _Rose thought. "_What do I do?"_

Tentatively, Rose took the sword from Diamond's hand. Not allowing her face to betray her emotions, she turned and nodded at Diamond.

"My loyalty is not to question," Rose said simply, walking over to stand beside Garnet. _  
_

"Hm," Topaz said, raising an eyebrow. "Diamond, now that I remember it, there is business to attend to. Can our team be excused?"

"You and Sapphire, leave us," Diamond said with a sweep of her hand. Her gaze remained locked on Rose.

"Wait," Sapphire said, pointing a finger at Rose. "I don't trust her."

Diamond's face snapped toward Sapphire. "Do as you're told," she snarled, watching as Sapphire glared back at her and began to move out of the room with Topaz.

After the two gems left, Diamond walked over to where Rose stood over Garnet with the sword raised, leaning over and forcing Garnet's chin upward in order to look her in the eye.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked, looking over at Diamond.

"Keeping her from shutting her eyes."

Rose shuddered, and raised the sword higher.

"_Stop."_

Rose froze where she stood.

_"Make a choice. Do you want to kill the only good you have seen here, or protect the good?"_

Rose wrestled with her conscience for a moment, hesitating with the sword as she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.

"What's taking so long?" Diamond demanded.

And in that moment, Rose knew, remembering all of the suffering she had watched, all of the pain she had felt, exactly what choice she would make.

She took the thin white sword, leaping sideways away from where Garnet lay and stabbed it into Diamond, watching it go through the wide-eyed gem's back. Rose watched as the evil gem's form disappeared into a small diamond that clattered on the ground. The sword disappeared, and Rose silently and quickly took the young Garnet gem off of the ground and through her over her shoulders, and ran toward the entrance of the temple.

"Rosie...what's going on?" Garnet asked groggily, looking around from the her awkward sprawl of her mid-body being on Rose's shoulders.

"We're running away," Rose explained, huffing as she ran. For a small gem, Garnet was surprisingly heavy. Rose continued into the thick underbrush, tree branches seeming to race over her head as she ran. "We're going to find a quiet place that the gems don't normally come to. Diamond will come out of her gem soon, so we need to move fast..."

Garnet complied, too weak to run, but smiling at the fact that they were finally leaving that evil, gray compound. The sky was dark with midnight, and the stars provided their only light, mostly blocked by the forest roof above them.

"It seems like I spend so much of my time running," Rose said hopelessly.

"You didn't want to hurt all of them," Garnet said. "I would have fought."

"I know," Rose sighed. "Hold still. You struggling is making running harder."

* * *

"This is it," Rose said, pointing up at a large cliff-side overlooking the coast. It sheltered them from the view of a human village a few kilometers away, the very same village that their team had terrorized a week earlier. It took a while to travel their by foot rather than warp pad.

"We are stopping here?" Garnet asked. After a week of traveling with Rose, she was recovering, but not quite up to par. "This place smells like old moss."

"This seems suitable." Rose walked along the beach for a moment, staring over at the cliff that towered over them. "It's nice and secluded. Perfect, really. And besides, these villagers are a suitable cover. I doubt other gems will suspect that we live this close to humans." She paused for a moment, looking up the cliff-side. There was a long wall of moss stretched over the hopeless piles and jigsaw cutouts of rocks. "Besides, I like the moss."

"This is the same place that we went on a mission to a week ago," Garnet said softly.

Rose looked back, and smiled compassionately. Garnet was only a little kid...sort of. She was more like fifty, but she looked and spoke like she was five. Earlier that day, Rose had combed the younger gem's hair back into small pigtails.

"But if they come here, what happens to us?"

Rose stared in shock at Garnet, blinking away tears.

"You'll be fine," Rose said, walking over and placing a single hand on Garnet's head as she looked into the younger gem's eyes. "I'll do whatever I can to make sure of that."


	9. Building an Army

**The previous message has been taken down. **

**Thanks for the feedback. =)**

* * *

"Again!"

A skinny, teenaged-Garnet re-equipped her gauntlets, and agilely moved toward Rose. Rose equipped her shield, holding it out in front of her as Garnet struck at her again and again, not quite fast enough to land a blow on Rose herself.

"Again!" Rose commanded when Garnet's gauntlets disappeared and the younger gem was out of breath.

"I need a moment," Garnet croaked. She looked as though she were about 17, but she was really 150 years old.

"Because your enemy is going to give you a moment," Rose said sarcastically. She held up her shield. "Again!"

Garnet re-equipped her gauntlets, tiredly thrusting several punches in Rose's direction, which the older gem easily dodged. They were sparring together just outside the newly built temple, their feet shifting through the beach's sand. The day was hot, and the sand was burning, but neither gem cared.

"Okay, it's time for a break," Rose finally called. Garnet flopped onto the ground, her gauntlets disappearing into oblivion.

"Finally," she muttered, wiping sweat off of her forehead.

Rose sighed, at the younger gem, shaking her head. "I'll be back in a moment," she said called to the other, gem, turning away and waving one arm. "You rest until I get back. Recover quickly, though. You need to get stronger."

"Yes mother," Garnet called back sarcastically, sitting up for a moment before leaning back against the sand and watching the beach waves wash toward her.

* * *

Rose looked in the mirror across from her, and saw more small gem spikes coming out of her skin, like small blemishes.

"It's getting worse," she murmured, closing her eyes as new stress washed over her. Shaking her head, Rose felt herself fall back against the wall of the temple, her head in her arms.

"Why does she hate humans so much?" she asked out loud. Her answer was met with the loud slam of a door as Garnet hustled into the room.

"She's on the move again!" Garnet yelled over to Rose. "She has sent out a party...I know where, but I don't know why..."

"Diamond?" Rose asked back to Garnet, standing up. Garnet winced when she saw the small gem shards embedded in Rose's skin. "I know," Rose murmured. "I haven't found a cure for it yet. As far as I know, Diamond's dying from it also." Rose felt her mind drift back to the day, years ago, when she first saw that Diamond's skin was turning into raw, uncut gemstone.

"Let's get moving, then," Garnet agreed, trying not to stare at the blemishes on Rose's skin.

They headed out to the meager warp pad that they had constructed just outside the wooden house that stood as their haven, and Garnet directed the warp to where she believed Diamond's team was heading.

* * *

"Keep it moving! Come on!"

Several bigger gems were herding smaller children, only some of them with gems embedded into their skin, in a small town. The town, Rose had noticed, must have been European; she and Garnet were hidden at the top of a three-story wooden building. All of the bigger gems had drawn their weapons, and several of the towns people were trying to fight as their children were being ripped away, and their parents assaulted for trying to fight back.

"They're kidnapping them..." Garnet murmured softly, and Rose nodded.

"She's building an army. She doesn't seem like she is here at the moment, though. She's been busier over the last few years, especially."

"Should we stop them?" Garnet asked curiously.

"Wait," Rose said, lightly holding out one hand. She peered over the edge of the roof, looking down at the sorrowful town's people.

In the town below, Sapphire stepped out of the shadows. Since the century they had not been with Sapphire and Topaz's team, he had a long scar over his forehead.

Garnet watched as Rose glared down at the blue gem warrior, the older gem suddenly on edge. Rose began to tremble slightly with anger.

"You gonna be okay?" Garnet asked slowly, staring at Rose.

"Just fine," Rose muttered darkly. "Those children can't be forced to leave, but there are two many of those gems...how do we attack...?" she thought out loud.

Rose had lost Garnet at the word 'attack.' The young gem landed in the square of the town below, equipping her gauntlets, and attacking some of the nearer gems that were running the operation.

"Garnet...NO!" Rose shouted.

"Well look who it is..." Sapphire muttered. "It's only been a century." He equipped his weapon when he saw Rose, giving the gem warrior an especially dark smile before lunging at Garnet.

The other gems helping kidnap the children saw the commotion and had their weapons ready. Most of the kids were already leaving the town with Diamond's gems, but those still within the town scattered. Gems charged off in all different directions, chasing down the children that they planned to assimilate into the army.

Rose summoned her shield and jumped down off of the building, moving beside Garnet as they fought in all of the confusion.

"This...was...a stupid plan!" Rose yelled above the battle noise. More of the town's people scattered, trying to recover their lost children.

"Sorry...it wasn't...good enough for you!" Garnet shouted back. "Besides, I couldn't let those children continue with those gems...These people have lost enough! And some of those kids looked like gems!"

Rose felt herself go deaf to the battle sounds when she heard a small cry. She jumped out of battle, leaving Garnet alone for a moment (the gem looked as though she was handling herself fine), and looked on toward the source of the cry. By the door of a building was a little girl, with a very thin frame and blonde hair, a small, smooth gem embedded in her forehead.

Rose leaped through the battle and moved toward the young gem.

Most children that were being collected were now out of sight. The town's people were now battling for their lives, but no longer their children. Rose lifted the small gem off of the ground, and turned back toward the battle.

People were dying, and the gems were easily over-powering them.

"Rosie...Hey Rosie!"

Rose heard her name being called out. She turned around, the little gem still in her arms, but slightly more calm.

Sapphire stood ready with his weapon, and called out Rose's name again.

"Garnet," Rose said uncertainly, backing away from Sapphire. "It's time to go!"

"Right behind you!" Garnet called out, suddenly landing beside Rose as they both took off at a run.

"Who's the girl?" Garnet asked as they ran.

"I don't know, I found her," Rose explained. "Why did you jump in like that? Don't you know you could have been killed by them?"

"I can handle myself!" Garnet complained. "Save the lecture for later!"

They reached the warp pad just outside the town, and a moment later, they appeared back at the house outside their small village.


	10. Garnet and Pearl

"My name is Pearl," the little girl answered. She looked only about 10 years old.

"I see," Rose said, kneeling down on one knee and brushing the Pearl's hair back with her hand. "Do you have parents? We might be able to bring them here, but that town you were in isn't safe."

Pearl shook her head.

"No, you don't want to be here, or no, you don't have parents?" Rose asked.

"No, I don't have parents," Pearl answered very timidly. Rose watched the girl look past her at the taller gem hovering only a few feet away. "That girl has three eyes," she commented nervously.

Garnet bit back a very sharp retort, but Rose saw the corner of her mouth twitch open enough to see a few teeth.

"Yes," Rose said softly, turning back to Pearl. '_What an amazing observation. Oh well, she's young,' _Rose thought.

* * *

Garnet wore a huge pair of glasses. They, Rose had noticed, now covered her third eye.

'_So she is self-conscious about that,' _Rose thought, slightly amused. '_Best not to bring it up often.'_

So Rose continued to watch the younger gems spar with each other. Pearl would be staying with them, at least for now, until either she was old enough to move on, or some other arrangement came up.

Diamond, as far as Rose could tell, was still gathering armies. And by the day, more gems were either be assimilated, or they were being destroyed.

"Try again," Garnet taunted, but didn't summon her gauntlets. A young Pearl drew her spear out of her gem and began to fight, with Garnet easily blocking the gem's blows. A moment later, Rose watched in shock as the bigger gem picked up Pearl and threw her into the sand a few feet away. The younger gem landed with a soft thud, and didn't get up.

"Garnet!" Rose yelled, becoming angry. "She's so little! Don't be that harsh when you're sparring with her! She's younger than you!"

Garnet frowned nervously at the strength that she had accidentally used, becoming too caught up in the moment with Pearl. She ran over to where the young gem lay, in a slight panic, but stumbled back in shock when Pearl popped back onto her feet and swiftly began to swipe at Garnet, shredding the other gem's sleeves with her spear.

"Next time you try that, be ready," Pearl snapped. Rose actually thought it was pretty cute, like an angry little girl who wasn't used to channeling her rage.

"You little punk," Garnet snapped back. She grabbed Pearl's hair, and slowly pushed the younger gem downward so that she sank waist deep into the sand.

"Hey!" Pearl yelled, struggling to climb out. "Quit it, Garnet! You're always doing this stuff when we train!"

Rather than immediately reprimand the girls for fighting, Rose considered that her first priority was to contain her laughter. At this moment in time, Rose only looked about twenty.

This was all interrupted by a bright flash of light coming out of the warp pad, and a young gem with white hair and light green skin falling onto the sand, bleeding heavily. Rose's head snapped toward the warp pad, but Garnet and Pearl continued to bicker, not noticing the change in atmosphere.

"Shut it!" Rose yelled over them, and both gems fell silent, and turned in shock upon seeing the injured gem only a few feet away.

"Please," the young man said, lifting his face at level with the sand, just high enough to lock eyes with Rose. "Help me."

* * *

Rose and Garnet were both holding up the young gem between them, with one of his arms on each of their shoulders, as they carried him inside the house. Pearl nimbly followed the two older gems without saying a word, but silently forming perceptions on what was happening. The green-skinned gem was bleeding from a long cut on his back.

"He came from Diamond's army," Garnet murmured, looking down at the now passed-out gem's face. "He could be dangerous. We should have left him."

Rose cringed at the mentioning of Diamond's name, but looked down at the young man with compassion none the less.

"We couldn't have just left him there. I wouldn't allow that," Rose said. Garnet noticed that she spoke with far more kindness about this gem than she had in years' past, whenever Diamond's name had been mentioned. "And besides," Rose continued. "I have heard rumors that they have a way of tracking gems if they retreat into their gem to regenerate. If this is true, then he could have come just to set a beacon for them to find our location. We aren't very kind to them, after all."

Since having retrieved Pearl, the Rose and Garnet had both been on several more missions to keep Diamond from completely clearing human areas, especially if it meant that her army would become bigger. Despite the fact that their attempts were often futile, they were still making a name of themselves as an enemy among Diamond's ranks.

"They didn't know that we had a warp pad to begin with," Garnet reasoned. "So it seems illogical for them to find us now, of all times. Unless they decided to explore here, again, and wondered if some other gem had set up a warp chamber?"

"I chose this location to hide, thinking it would be the last place that any of those gems would find us," Rose stated. "If they are anywhere close to finding us, then we had better be prepared when it happens."

* * *

The injured gem's breathing became less shallow, and he seemed to relax slightly with time.

"He's young," Rose murmured. He only had to be a few years older than Pearl. Realistically, this actually meant that he had to be at least fifty years older. His face became more relaxed, and his jaw opened, allowing him to breath more freely.

When treating him, Rose had noticed a small, green gem located on the back of his neck, just below his head. Later on, she had realized it was a peridot.

Garnet and Pearl were off resting after having been training. They chose to do so while sitting by the warp pad, waiting to see if there were any more threats that were going to appear.

The young gem blinked his eyes open slowly, allowing his gaze to drift around the room without lifting his neck. He was lying across a small couch that Rose had had placed in the small wooden house when she and Garnet had first come to live by the beach. And slowly, his gaze shifted to the older gem that was hovering over him. She was a tall, young lady, wearing a white dress, with light pink skin, and pink hair with large curls, and a kind smile. She was lovely.

That is, until he noticed the small pink crystals that were popping up out of her skin, now visibly noticeable by more than just Garnet.

Peridot couldn't help it. He cringed when he saw that Rose Quartz was afflicted.

"You're awake!" Rose said, looking a bit shocked. The gem nodded. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I fell out of a warp pad after being attacked. And I remember bleeding," he said. For a young gem, Rose thought that he seemed very matter-of-fact about what had happened to him.

"You had a really huge cut across your back. And when I turned you over to treat it, I noticed that there is a green gem in your neck. By my experience, you are a Peridot, right?"

"Um, yeah," Peridot answered. "Thank you for helping me, I guess. Um, what's happening to your skin?"

"Oh! I..." Rose said, turning away and shuffling through the small house in search of the mirror she had been avoiding. She found one hung up on the wall, and had to contain her scream. The small crystal blemishes were now four centimeter shards on one side of her face.

"It's gotten worse!" Rose wailed loudly, tears pouring out of her eyes.

"What's gotten worse?" Garnet asked, walking into the house, holding Pearl's hand. She cringed when she saw Rose.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Rose shouted, covering her face. "What's happening to me?!"

Peridot looked up at Garnet. Pearl smiled at the injured gem.

"It's alright, we'll find a cure," Garnet explained quietly, trying to calm the hysterical Rose down.

"You look like how Diamond did when she became sick," Peridot commented.

"Don't you mention that name! Go back to sleep if you're going to talk that way!" Rose shouted back.

Garnet sighed, letting go of Pearl's hand and telling the younger gem to head up stairs and rest for a little while longer. Garnet turned, looking over at Peridot, and lifted Rose off of the ground, effectively restraining the hysterical gem.

"Let me go! Letmego! Garnet, PUT ME DOWN!"

"If you go up those stairs and touch even one hair on that little girl's head, I will smash you into the ground," Garnet said stoically to Peridot.

"That would be difficult, seeing as how my back is still injured and I can hardly move," Peridot said calmly, despite Rose's loud protests and screaming.

Garnet nodded at him, and the two gems shared a small understand, a small trust even, and Garnet silently turned and carried a still-screaming Rose out the door.

* * *

Steven swayed where he sat, turning slightly pale. Garnet paused for a moment.

"Are you alright, Steven?" she asked, calmly, but hinting slight concern. He turned slightly green.

Steven looked up from where he had been leaning over the bed a moment earlier and wiped his mouth. He stared in horror when he realized that he had thrown up on Garnet's shoes.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, horrified, and looked up Garnet.

Garnet took off her glasses, her eyes squeezed shut as she massaged her forehead.

"It's...alright," she said finally, stepping back and slipping out of her shoes. "I can get Pearl to clean up in awhile. Let's go down stairs; I think you have had enough of the story for just a little while."

* * *

**I absolutely loved seeing "Mirror Gem" and "Ocean Gem." I just figured out about how this story is going to end, and because of the episodes, the plot line for my Garnet-centric story literally exploded. In a positive way =D**

**Thanks so much for reading! Please leave review! =)**


	11. A Gem in Need

"Where are Pearl and Amethyst?" Steven asked groggily. The sun hadn't risen yet outside, but he couldn't sleep any longer.

"They are inside the temple. Amethyst is feeling a bit worse, and Pearl decided to take care of her." Garnet was sitting on the couch, beside where Steven had been sleeping. "You're looking a bit better."

Steven clutched his head and moaned slightly, his eyes squeezed shut. A moment later he was stunned to feel Garnet's hand over his forehead.

Garnet shrugged, and moved her hand away.

"Ready to continue the story?"

Steven's eyes brightened, and he nodded with mild eagerness.

* * *

Garnet walked out into the night with Rose violently struggling and kicking in her arms. Garnet felt her face contort slightly with anger as she moved several yards away from the house, and roughly threw Rose into the sand only a few feet away from the tide.

Rose still struggled and kicked in the sand in anger and frustration. Garnet glared down at the older gem, yanking off her glasses and throwing them aside.

"ROSE! Calm down already!" Garnet shouted. She knelt down where Rose was struggling against the ground and pressed down on one of the older gem's shoulders in order to restrain her.

Rose stopped struggling, and Garnet slowly loosened her grip on Rose's shoulder.

"Breathe," Garnet commanded, and watched Rose draw in a deep breath, tears still pouring out of her eyes.

"What's happening?" she whispered, looking up at Garnet. The younger gem shook her head.

"I still don't know. I figured that you would, the way you were freaking out."

Garnet removed her hand, and helped Rose to her feet. Rose ran her hand along the side of her face, feeling the sharp shards of pink crystal protruding from her face.

"Diamond said that we only have so much time to live as gems," Rose said quietly. "You're only a few hundred years younger than I am, and I never saw this happening to you."

"And I don't know why. That day we attacked a village, and when I said that you deserved to die for it...I'm sorry," Garnet said, looking down. "We, me and Pearl, would be at lost without you."

"It's alright, I think you were right," Rose said, smoothing Garnet's hair. The younger gem was just taller than her. "I have some time left. Enough to cripple her army, if we get the chance. Let's get back inside the temple."

There was a small, high-pitched scream that came out of the temple. Garnet and Rose looked at each other for a moment, and then turned and dashed across the sand.

* * *

"So there's another gem that's almost my age!?" a young Pearl squealed excitedly. Peridot nodded where he sat up on the couch, visibly wincing when the muscles in his back shifted.

"She was recruited as part of Diamond's army...but they might be close to corrupting her."

The door to the house flew off of its hinges and into the temple, landing when it hit the back wall. Garnet stormed in, fist still raised from when she had hit the door, and glared over at Peridot. Seeing the Pearl was unharmed, a slight expression of shock crossed her face.

"Garnet! Are you gonna be alright?" Rose Quartz asked, stepping in behind the bigger gem. Garnet nodded gruffly, mumbling something under her breath, before she walked over and pulled Pearl a few feet away from where Peridot was sitting.

"There's another gem! We can get another gem!" Pearl was cheering excitedly. "I hope she's pretty! Maybe she likes swords! I just hope she's not messy..."

"Pearl, stop." Rose had raised a single hand, her eyes still trained on Peridot as the room fell silent. "...What do you mean that there is another gem?"

"There is a young one close to being corrupted," Peridot explained easily.

The room remained silent as Rose Quartz looked at the floor, calculating their options. When she looked up, she was shocked to see everyone else's eyes on her.

"What...are you all staring at me for?"

"Well," Peridot shrugged. "You seem to know what you're doing here."

Rose pointed over at Peridot. "We can probably take you where you need to go, if you like."

Peridot shook his head. "The first thing we need to do is rescue that young gem. I mentored her. Her name is Amethyst."

"Amethyst..." Rose echoed. "Sounds promising. You say that she is with Diamond's army?"

"Yes. And she could be in danger now that I am gone."

"Then heal up. Let's take some time to be ready, and then we can move in to retrieve her and any other young gem that wants to return with us," Rose said.

Peridot nodded, and laid back on the couch, closing his eyes. Pearl calmly walked over to Garnet, grasping the bigger gem's hand.

"Rose Quartz," Garnet said quietly, calmly. "May I speak with you for a moment?"

"Yes," Rose agreed, and they stepped outside with Pearl still grasping Garnet's hand.

Garnet looked around from a moment to check that no one was watching. When she realized that everything was clear, she finally spoke. "Are you sure that it is safe to be including him in these plans?" Garnet asked uncertainly.

"There's something about him that I can't explain. I don't know how to say it, but I feel like he's telling the truth. It sounds like he genuinely cares for that young gem he wants to rescue, even if we may be set up," Rose said calmly.

"But that's just the thing...If we are being set up, then that could result in them killing us and everything we have worked for. This temple, this life...it could all be gone."

"If it means that we spare another's life, then that is a risk that we have to take," Rose said with finality.

* * *

Peridot watched carefully when Rose and Garnet and Pearl had all left the house before he sat up, straightening his back without any labor. He took a small mirror out of the pocket of his tunic, eyeing it carefully.

"Topaz," he whispered to the mirror. "Are you there?"

The mirror lit up as an image of the gem, Topaz, was reflected back at Peridot. "What did you need?" the mirror's image asked calmly.

"Their coming soon. Make sure that within a few days time, everything is ready. The plan is working alright so far," Peridot answered.

"Excellent. Topaz out."

Peridot re-pocketed the mirror and looked up at the ceiling. Despite the fact that they must be readying Diamond's army, one thing remained that Peridot was certain about: even if Rose Quartz and her gems were killed, he had no intention of not allowing himself and Amethyst to escape to safety.


	12. Surprise Attack

There was a sound of glass shattering, and Topaz winced.

"Now, I know you're not happy that this is happening so soon..." he began to explain.

Diamond drew in a deep breath, and turned around, stepping out of the shadows. Most of her skin, including her face, was made up of white crystal, maybe all but twenty percent.

"It's as good a time as ever," the gem said in a voice that sounded like death. "Well done in managing to bait her; Peridot will pay for baiting her early."

There was a long pause in which Topaz looked down at the gray floor, and finally gathered the nerve to look up.

"...Why is it that you want her so badly?" Topaz asked uneasily. Diamond's gaze snapped toward him with such ferocity that he flinched.

"It's been a long time...such a long time...Topaz, we need her gem. You remember when we first came here, the temple that we landed near? The pyramid temple? It's the only one that can create a signal strong enough to send us home. And to do that, we need her gem...She managed to slip away from us before I realized that we needed it."

Topaz was shocked by the fact that Diamond almost sounded desperate.

"I...see..." Topaz said unassuredly. "I'll do my best."

"Your best isn't a promise. Get the job done," Diamond growled. Topaz's eyes widened when he thought he saw the crystal that was incasing her skin spread a little further after she snapped at him. "I want to go home."

* * *

The sun rose over the beach, spreading a refreshing light over the sand. Two weeks had passed since Peridot had first come to Rose Quartz's temple, and in these two weeks, Garnet was no less at ease than when he first appeared.

"Pearl, you stay at the temple. I don't want you getting hurt."

"But Garnet! I want to help!"

"Pearl, listen," Rose finally spoke up. "We don't want you getting injured, or else it could jeopardize our mission. We want to be able to return safely with...Amethyst, was it?...And then we will return, alright?"

"...Okay," Pearl moped, turning back toward the house.

"Hey, Pearl?" Garnet asked, turning away from the warp pad for a moment to look at the younger gem.

"Yeah?" the young gem asked, turning back around.

Garnet shaped her fingers into a gun. "Bang," she said with a smile.

Pearl giggled, and started to run back toward the temple, but as the others turned away, she stopped running, and began to inch back toward the warp pad, her feet shifting silently through the sand.

"Alright, so Amethyst is being trained in the interior of the stronghold?" Rose asked, turning to Peridot.

Peridot nodded. "One of the lower floors, close to where they hold the gems that they are planning to execute."

"Let's warp," Garnet said, stepping onto the pad. Rose and Peridot followed.

"I'm not being left behind when I can help!" a young Pearl shouted, running toward the warp pad just as it lit up.

"Pearl! NO!" Rose shouted, holding up a hand to stop Pearl as she leapt onto the pad and was warped with the rest of the gems.

* * *

The ground was dark gray, and the air was full of black ash. The stronghold that Diamond's gem army was hiding in was covered in spiked wire, and stood several stories high, with no windows.

Rose stared at the structure that was the stronghold, a flood of bad memories surfacing as she thought about all of the humans she saw tortured, all of the gems that she saw killed, and clutched her head, trying to make the memories disappear.

"Rose...?" Garnet said, looking down to where Rose fell to her knees beside the other two gems. "Rosie?"

There was a soft thud as Pearl landed on the ground a few feet away, having tumbled out of the warp pad.

"Pearl," Garnet said sharply, her head snapping toward the younger gem. "I told you to stay at the temple!"

Pearl's eyes widened with fear.

"I wanted to help..."

"It's been awhile Rose," a calm voice called. Rose's mind cleared, and she stood up, straightening her shoulders. Garnet stiffened beside her, but somehow, Peridot remained calm.

The voice continued. "I didn't think that you would actually risk coming back here, Rose Quartz. Sapphire said that he had seen you a few years back when he was rounding up gems and humans, not to mention all of the other missions that you have screwed up for us since you left."

"Topaz," Rose Quartz called. "You know me better than to just hide out there. Whenever we sparred, I always won."

Topaz stepped out, sword in hand, but lowered. He smiled lightly.

"Don't let them escape," he said out loud, and in a moment, at least 50 gems had flooded through the clearing and began to attack. "Cut off their exit!"

The battle began to roar around Rose as she fought for her life, struggling against stinging weapons and punches and kicks. Her mind drifted back to the day that she ran to escape soldiers, the day her brother was killed, the day, so many years ago, that she was thrown into this mess...

"Garnet! Protect Pearl!" Rose shouted over the sounds of battle. She froze, however, at the next familiar face that she saw. There in the crowd, slowly walking toward her, and completely unaffected by the sounds of battle, was Diamond.

* * *

**This chapter was short because otherwise I think I would have made it too long. =) Next chapter will be out soon.**


	13. When the World Came Crashing Down

Rose stared ahead of her, ignoring the team of battling gems around her, as she was approached by Diamond. The older gem was covered in armor, mainly comprised of a breastplate, helmet, and her thin, white sword.

"It's been awhile, _Rosie._"

There was a long pause, and Rose Quartz's gaze drifted around, past where Diamond now stood in front of her. Garnet was throwing and yanking attacking gems away from Pearl, who had been pinned down by two of Topaz's squad; after being piled on by about six gems, Garnet was finally subdued. Peridot stared and watched at what was happening, looking saddened.

Rose turned back and faced Diamond, the older gem standing taller and leaning into her face.

"You know what, _Rosie? _All this time, I thought you were worthless. These humans, what good can come from them? And what's the greatest that can come from a gem who was once a human? But then I realized, all this time, you were my key home."

Rose stood perfectly still as Diamond gave her a wicked grin. The older gem removed her helmet, revealing more than half her head being covered in hideously sharp, grayish crystal, with very few hairs coming out of the other side of her scalp. Rose winced, glancing Diamond up and down.

"Do you find this strange? This is what you're going to look like soon." Diamond inhaled deeply, picking up a lock of Rose's long, curly hair, and running her fingers through it. "Just wait and see."

Slowly and deliberately, with Rose shaking on her feet, Diamond leaned in, and poked one of the pink crystal patches on Rose's face with her long, deprecated finger. Rose Quartz's eyes widened in horror as she felt more of the crystal spread over her face.

"Rose! ROSE QUARTZ! Get out of there!"

Garnet summoned her gauntlets when she saw that her shouting had done nothing to awaken Rose from her shock, and managed to throw of the gems that were holding her down. Charging toward her mentor, Garnet threw her weight against Diamond, and watched with satisfaction as the older gem stumbled a few steps away.

"GET OUT!" Garnet yelled. Rose woke from her shock, her face snapping towards Garnet, but the younger gem wouldn't wait. A few feet away, the warp pad still remained active. Garnet lifted Rose into her arms, barreling past the gems that tried to stop her, and threw the pink gem onto the warp pad.

There was a bright flash of light as the warp pad activated, and Rose Quartz was gone. Acting too quickly to be satisfied, Garnet took one gauntlet, and in one punch, smashed the pad so that shards of crystal flew away from its surface, and an electrical pulse seemed to leave the the platform.

Garnet's gauntlets disappeared into oblivion, and she raised both hands in surrender. As several gems pinned her onto the ground, Diamond approached slowly, her anger showing on her face. In one swift and decisive motion, Diamond kicked Garnet's jaw from where the subdued gem lay on the ground.

"Just as weak as when you were young," she spat. Garnet only grunted at her in response.

"Confine them," Diamond ordered, turning to Topaz, and then walking back to her stronghold.

* * *

Rose tumbled out the warp pad into broad moonlight, landing roughly on the sand. She didn't flinch as the sand scrapped across her skin. And when she finally stopped rolling, she froze where she was, face down, and simply laid there.

After awhile, the tide began to brush against her fingers, and Rose remained frozen, spread out on the sand, when the full realization of what had just happened, that Garnet and Pearl had been apprehended, and that she was possibly the only one that would live through the next day, if that long now that she felt the crystal spreading over her skin in a more rapid pace, and that worst of all, she was alone, just like that moment when she fell down the hill, right after her brother had died, hit her.

Rose finally looked up, and instead of sadness, she felt anger. Blind rage, for the first time in over a hundred years, finally reached a minimum threshold within her, and Rose shakily stood up, wobbling on her feet as she felt raw crystal suddenly spreading over her limbs, and hate boiled over, hate for everyone and everything suddenly spilled out of her.

She raised her fist, and shouted at the sky with everything she had.

"I didn't ask for this! I didn't ask for **any** of this! I didn't ask to be a gem! I didn't ask to be responsible for more than myself! I didn't ask to be part of much killing! So much Pain! So much misery! I didn't ask for this! Ididn'taskforthis! Ididn't...IDIDN'T!"

Pink crystal was now spreading over her skin in a rapid pace, making all of her limbs stiff as stone as Rose fell to her knees, tears pouring out of her eyes.

"So why did this happen to me? I only wanted to be with my brother."

The words surfaced in her head a moment later.

"_The opportunity was open for you to be a gem, when otherwise you would have been killed. After that, you tried too hard to keep in control."_

Some how, these words felt stable. When she felt as though everything was crashing down around her, this was actually comforting.

_"None of that matters now. Love heals." _

Rose felt a suddenly calm, almost tranquil, as her thoughts drifted back to Garnet and Pearl. All those times that they trained together, and all of those times they spent eating, talking, laughing...Love? Her gemstone began to glow at the thought.

_"Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always preserves." ((1Cor. 13:7))_

The words surfaced in her mind, and Rose felt herself smile. She felt a surge of new energy pass through her with these words, and slowly, ever slowly, she felt the pressure of crystal on her limbs loosen. Managing to move her arm, Rose listened, and as she stood up, the crystal that had tried to encase her, the one thing that her morality was measured in outside of battle, shattered and fell away from her skin like pink pieces of glass that now littered the beach.

Rose stood up to her full height, glaring toward the warp pad in fierce determination. She needed time to prepare. It was time to finish this with Diamond.

"Garnet, Pearl..." Rose began softly, and felt her voice harden. "I'm coming for you."

* * *

**Rose is a character where her actions and everything that we really know about her personality are based on love. **

**Thanks for all the great support! =D**


	14. Captive

"So what happened next?" Steven demanded, leaning forward with stars in his eyes. Garnet managed to refrain from smiling.

"She came for us," Garnet explained. "What else do you think happened?"

Steven's face sank, his shoulders turning inward. "Is that it?"

"Yes."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"I think that story made me feel worse."

There was a long pause in which neither Steven nor Garnet said anything, and then...

"Well, there is the matter of 'how' she came and got us. But you need to stop interrupting."

Steven's eyes brightened once more. "But it's so exciting...and you were there for it!"

"It was much worse at the time," Garnet explained, shrugging. "Rose was a wreck for awhile after that."

"I won't interrupt anymore, Garnet," said Steven. "I promise."

* * *

A small, ten-year-old looking Pearl groggily opened her eyes. As feeling slowly descended upon her limbs, pain throbbed through her arms and shoulders. She noticed after a moment that she was still standing; small chains attached to her wrists dug into the wall above her, just short enough to keep her on her feet.

As more sensations returned to her, Pearl noticed, much to her fear, that she was chained to the wall alone in a dark room with stony gray walls. The blackness descended in a way that she could not see the roof of the room, and could not see the floor past a seven foot radius.

"Garnet?" Pearl pulled against the chains that bound her wrists with fruitless effort. "Garnet!"

She heard a low grunt come from the corner of the room, and stopped struggling. "Garnet, are you there?" She was beginning to sound frightened.

"...Hello, Pearl." The voice wasn't exactly happy. It sounded extremely stoic, but with a hint of aggravation.

"Garnet, are you okay?"

"I'm alright. Did they hurt you?"

Pearl took a moment to consider those words, and nodded, despite the realization that Garnet would not be able to see.

"Yes. My shoulders hurt, but it could be the way they chained me here."

There was a loud yell that caused Pearl to shiver and back against the wall when she heard it, followed by the furious rattling of chains and splitting of wood. After a few moment, however, it died down. Pearl opened her eyes and looked back toward the corner where the commotion had come from, and frowned.

"It's okay, Garnet. Just relax. It will hurt less."

There was a long period of silence after that, and Pearl felt herself lean back against the wall. After a few more moments, Pearl stood straight up when she heard the creaking of a wooden door, and saw light pour into the room. A tall gem, with blue skin and white hair, walked into the room, carrying a lantern.

"Sapphire," Pearl heard Garnet mutter. The blue-skinned gem turned to face the dark corner of the room, and for a moment, Pearl saw him voicelessly threaten to throw his lantern.

"No," the voice murmured again weakly, almost as if it were begging. "Please."

Sapphire nodded, turning away. He looked over to where Pearl was chained, glancing her up and down for a moment, and nodded.

"Seems fine enough. You're both in _just _good enough condition."

"Condition for what?" Pearl asked Sapphire curiously, but began to regret her decision.

"Condition to return home. If we can use you to bait Rose Quartz, and if you are lucky enough to live through that, then you will face trial after we return home," Sapphire said.

"Trial?" Pearl asked.

"For treason."

Pearl shivered, and looked away.

Sapphire turned and left after that, intent on reporting to Diamond.

* * *

Topaz was shaking slightly where he sat as he watched Diamond rant. The deranged gem was beginning to look as though she could spit fire...Topaz didn't find himself more comfortable with that thought.

"How did that vile human even become a gem...?"

Despite the question sounding rhetorical, Diamond turned toward a startled Topaz, glaring at him for an answer.

"Well, we all knew that Ruby was not exactly 'sane' as of late," the wide-eyed gem began.

"You act as though I didn't know that. Do I look stupid to you, Topaz?" Diamond snarled.

"Um, no."

"Then why are you acting like I am?"

Topaz only stared back at Diamond, confused. "_What is happening?" _he thought, glancing briefly around the room.

"If I may be dismissed," Topaz said, standing and pushing his chair aside.

Diamond rested her head in one hand, leaning over in exasperation. "Go," she commanded. "Get out of my sight."

Topaz hurried out of the room without looking back.

* * *

Rose Quartz took one last glance at the mirror. It was amazing that the crystal had just fallen off of her skin...but she couldn't find time to dwell on it. She smiled as she saw the reflective white metal of the white chain skirt she was wearing, coupled with a thin, white breastplate with a small, star-shaped cut-out around her gem. No going back now. The residents of the Beach Village where the gem house was located had made it for her upon purchase a few days earlier. Although she did receive a few questioning glances over the star-shaped cut out, she had shown no one her gem, lest she reveal she was once one of the gem people that had tortured them.

But then again, that had been almost a hundred fifty years ago.

* * *

"It's as if she doesn't know," Topaz explained. "She knows to come, even if she didn't know where. Listen, Diamond...Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"I'll have that gemstone," Diamond answered gruffly. Topaz noticed that Sapphire was smirking at the other end of the room.

"The two captives are doing just fine," Sapphire called.

"Put them at the top of the temple, so that Rose Quartz may see them when she arrives. Do you understand?" Diamond ordered.

Sapphire nodded. "I doubt she will stay away for too much longer. Two weeks is long enough to prepare. And if not, we'll just get more interesting bait."

"T-the pyramid temple?" Topaz asked, sounding a bit nervous. "Isn't that a little...extreme?"

"That is where we were beamed down when we first got here," Sapphire answered. "You may have been too young to remember what it felt like when we arrived. At this point, nothing is too extreme. Especially when we need that rose quartz. It completes the puzzle. With that kind of energy, we can finally get off-planet."

Topaz turned back to Diamond. He glanced the gem with the crystal shards attached to her skin, and shivered.

"But the risk is enormous."

Diamond shook her head, and looked down at the crystal skin on her arm.

"This isn't caused by that," she then said calmly, almost too quietly. "Gentlemen, you do know what happens after the warp is reactivated, right?"

Sapphire and Topaz both nodded. Diamond sighed, for once looking human.

"Good. I'm going to prepare. Have that Garnet and Pearl ready at the top of the temple. Don't let their escape even be a possibility. And we need them alive."


	15. To the Crowd's Horror

So many hours of waiting...and a faint glow drifted out of the warp pad, lighting up the otherwise night-darkened sand that surrounded it.

Rosie's head snapped toward the warp pad from where she had dosed off, her face appearing grim.

"So this is how they want to signal me?" she muttered, irritated. Standing up, she shifted her limbs lightly, her armor shifting back into place so that she could move more easily. As she glanced over at the warp pad, Rose Quartz's gem let out a soft, pink glow.

"I guess now's the time," Rose continued to say. Her gem became even brighter when she ventured a step toward the warp pad.

* * *

"Amethyst..." Peridot began, shaking his head. His young, pupil, a short, slightly chubbier gem with white, mid-back-length hair looked up at him curiously.

"Whatcha need?" the young gem asked. She sounded as though she were only six years of age. She was closer thirty.

"Listen...You know how Diamond was going to send us all home? We shouldn't be going with them. It's too dangerous..."

"But I wanted to-"

"Listen to me, Amethyst!"

The younger gem winced away from her mentor, looking slightly more afraid than she had before. Peridot noticed that he was glaring, and slowly tried to relax his brow. He hadn't meant to yell.

"Amethyst...You need to trust me. This is for your safety." There was a pause. "Diamond...I can't talk here because we are being watched. But we need to go, now! I know of a small temple that is out on a beach somewhere...There is another gem out there. She might be willing to take you in..." Peridot was stuttering, and the thought occurred to him, '_That is if she ever forgives you for betraying her.'_

Peridot shook his head at himself.

"I'm doing this for your own good," he said sternly to Amethyst, but Amethyst thought that it sounded as though her were trying to convince himself.

Both gems noticed, however, with sudden shock, when their gemstones began to glow rather faintly. Peridot took a step toward the door, and noticed that his gem had somewhat brightened.

"It's a guide," he murmured to himself. Peridot looked increasingly more afraid as he turned back around to Amethyst and shouted, "We have to go, now! Before the warp pad signals are taken over!"

* * *

"Gentlemen, are you ready to proceed?"

Topaz noticed, with a shudder, that Diamond had chosen to cover herself with a full cape and hood, keeping it drawn over her face as well. Both of her hands were bandaged, like that of a leper.

He and Sapphire both shared a look, a single consensus that the crystalization of Diamond's skin must have grown noticeably worse since the last time they had seen her.

Outside the temple, the three gems had gathered every gem in the stronghold, and were getting ready to possibly warp for the pyramid temple. Diamond would send out a signal to all of the other warp pads, basically to all of the other gems on the planet, to gather them into one spot. There, if Rose Quartz appeared, she would be able to take out the crystal gem and use the rose quartz to power the a warp to bring gems off planet once and for all.

"The prisoners are ready to be moved," Sapphire stated, and Topaz gulped. As Diamond nodded and walked toward the warp pad, Sapphire turned to face Topaz with a glare. "Now's not a time to go weak," the blue gem spat. "I've noticed this from you, lately. You're lucky enough that Diamond hasn't had the sense to have you killed."

Topaz nodded quickly as Sapphire went ahead of him. Looking past Sapphire, Topaz watched as Diamond touched her hand onto one of the many warp pads outside of her gray temple. In response, the warp pad lit up, growing duller and brighter in a pattern that mimicked breathing. Diamond smiled; all warp pads would now lead to the same location. Rose would be meeting them, one way or another, at their destination.

As Diamond stepped onto the warp pad, each of the hundreds of gems present felt their individual gems begin to glow, especially as they stepped closer to one of the warp pads that surrounded the temple. Several times over, each of the warp pads lit up, transporting gems to the pyramid until there were no gems left in the clearing.

* * *

Rose took another step toward the warp pad. Her thoughts drifted back to all of the hurt she had been caused by those gems...how evil they were to these people. Her fears of how long she would be stuck with them when she had first had to work for Diamond.

And then her thoughts came back to her brother, Steven. How he had died on their doorstep, several hundred years ago, while giving her time to escape the possibility of being sold as a prostitute and raped by a group of soldiers.

Pearl and Garnet and Peridot's Amethyst and so many other gems, good or bad, were waiting for her.

'_Pearl and Garnet...'_

And without another thought, Rose ran onto the warp pad and let its light consume her.

* * *

As Rose's vision unclouded, she felt herself beginning to choke on ash.

All around her, the sky was a violently darkened with clouds; thunder clapped with alarming frequency and volume, enough to make anyone jump upon hearing it.

As Rose Quartz slowly adjusted to her surroundings, she noticed that she was on top of what seemed to be a wide, squarish platform, made of stone. As Rose came to her feet and peered over the edge of the platform, she noticed that it narrowed to a single point that dug into the ground, at least fifty feet below her.

She was standing up on a pyramid that was upside down.

"Rose Quartz."

Rose looked up when she heard her name. Her white armor shifted uncomfortably against her shoulders. Glancing over, Rose saw a cloaked figure standing only about ten feet away, face her, with their face covered. No one else was on the top of the pyramid-structure.

The cloaked figure cocked it's head to one side when Rose gave her a startled look, and shook her head. With one hand, she gestured behind her. When Rose looked past the cloaked figure, she saw what at first appeared to be hundred's of gems lined out on the grassy meadow beneath the pyramid.

Rose gasped when she realized that they were all gems, waiting, with their weapons drawn.

The cloaked figure looked up at Rose, still refusing to allow her face to show.

"It's okay. It's just us up here," she stated, and drew back her hood. Rose stared in horror at Diamond, as the older gem had had her skin bandaged up to her neck. Her hair was completely gone, and the only part of her that was not crystal was a small circle of flesh around a single, still human-looking eye. The rest of her looked as though it had been covered in shards and plates of ice.

"Diamond..." Rose murmured, looking at the older gem in pity.

"I did say, my life as a gem was only going to be so long," the other gem shrugged.

"You have something of mine," Rose stated plainly, trying not to appear angered. "Where are Pearl and Garnet?"

"Safe, for now." Diamond shifted so that she could look at the gem army behind her. "The concept is simple enough. That gem of yours, that one that Ruby gave to you...It is quite a powerful gem. We need it. If you give it too us, then we will let them go."

"Diamond, I'm not a child," Rose Quartz said, glaring at the older gem. "You don't run things that way. They'll end up dead whether or not you mean for them to escape. And so will many other gems. So will many other people...Send your army home. Give me back my students. And **go home**."

"I'm trying to," Diamond hissed.

"It didn't seem like you were trying to go home before, when I worked for you. You more interested in killing humans, and other gems."

"There are some costs to searching for a power source strong enough to send us all home. You wouldn't understand. You're still one of them," Diamond stated. She walked toward Rose, much to the younger gem's dismay, and drew her sword. "And just as weak. If you can't give us your life willingly to so that all of these gems have their own lives back, then I will carve that gem out of your stomach."

Rose glared back at Diamond. "Your solution for life is killing?"

"I gave up the possibility of my life a long time ago," Diamond said.

Rose paused, noticing that the gem looked as though she would spit fire.

"Diamond." Both of the two gems looked up and saw Topaz standing near the edge of the platform, having scaled the pyramid.

"What do you want?" Diamond hissed, stepping toward the male gem.

Rose watched Topaz visibly cringe, looking his superior up and down, and taking in her appearance. Taking a deep breath, he straightened up.

"A report," Topaz stated, not looking Diamond in the eye. He did, however, cast a sidelong glance at a determined-looking Rose Quartz. "The gems are getting rowdy. They hardly knew before this that you would kill other gems; they thought that those were rumors. The fact that you are up here with one who is visibly another gem is upsetting them. One gem in the crowd, a gem called Peridot, is trying to insight a riot."

"Then kill him," Diamond muttered darkly. Topaz glanced back over at Rose Quartz.

"I can't," he said quietly. "He's already gone too far. They would kill me if they saw me kill him. They know what treason is."

"Killing humans is okay, but killing gems isn't?" Rose scoffed. Topaz nodded.

Diamond stared straight ahead of herself for a moment, and then looked over the edge of the temple and into the crowd, watching them grow more and more restless. Rose watched uneasily as the infected gem began to shake with anger, and the crystallized skin slowly began to turn a light shade of red.

Diamond drew her sword once again, her visible eye filled with hatred. She surged toward Rose Quartz with unimaginable speed. Rose Quartz made an effort to draw her shield when she saw the gem coming, but she knew that she would not have her weapon ready in time. She squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation for the blow that would kill her.

No sensation of being stabbed ever came, but Rose did hear a low grunt, and the sound of liquid and flesh being pierced.

Slow daring to open her eyes, jolted when she saw the majority of Diamond's sword having run through Topaz, who had chosen to step in front of her.

Topaz uttered no words, but a single, shocked huff, the similar to that of someone doused in cold water. Rose felt tears well up in her eyes as she watched Topaz fall sideways. The male gem, lying on the stone ground, looked up at Rose one last time before disappearing into his gem.

Diamond, now angrier than before, took a step closer to Topaz's glowing gem, and brought her foot down. The gem shattered into several thousand pieces. Wordlessly, she kicked the gem pieces, which almost appeared to be orange glass, into the crowd of gems beneath the temple. Rose knew when the other gems realized what the orange dust was; she could hear petrified screaming from the crowd below all the way at the top of the temple.

When Rose Quartz turned back to Diamond, she watched the gem huff for a moment. Steam poured out of her mouth. Jumping at a sound similar to shattering glass, Rose stared in horror as crystal finally finished forming around Diamond's human-looking eye. The older gem froze, no longer animated. The crystal on her skin, however, began to crack, starting at the gem's feet and spider-webbing to the top of the tall gem's head. Rose could have sworn that she heard a animal-ish growl, despite the fact that Diamond seemed frozen and lifeless.

Slowly, the crystallized skin broke away from Diamond, as if caught in the wind. Where Diamond stood was a white dragon that grew to a length of seventy feet in less than ten seconds.


End file.
